This invention relates to a machine for making and dispensing liquid or semi-liquid food products and to a method for recirculating the liquid or semi-liquid product in the machine.
More specifically, this invention relates to machines for making and dispensing food products, such as, for example, ice creams, whipped cream, creams, chocolate, yogurt, and the like, which require thermal treatment in their production cycles.
Machines of this kind are known as “pasteurizers”, capable of mixing, cooking, pasteurizing, homogenizing, cooling, aging and storing under perfect conditions of hygiene, diverse speciality foods of the patisserie, ice cream and gourmet sectors.
Hereinafter, this specification refers explicitly to these pasteurizers without losing in generality.
Generally speaking, these machines comprise a tank for containing the product to be processed, at least one dispensing tap mounted at the bottom of the front of the tank and a stirrer mounted inside the tank for mixing the product.
According to known methods, the thermal treatment is generally performed by means of electrical resistors and/or a heating system based on a thermodynamic cycle.
The product is thus processed both mechanically, by means of the stirrer, and thermally, by means of heating and/or cooling units.
These pasteurizers require frequent cleaning and sanitizing operations to prevent the proliferation of bacteria, especially inside the tap, where product residues easily get trapped.
A particularly strongly felt need is that of being able to clean the parts inside the tap without removing the tap.
Another need that is felt particularly strongly is that for a pasteurization cycle where the product inside the pasteurizer is made to recirculate also through the tap and which is particularly easy to run because it does not require any machine parts and/or the tap to be removed and refitted.